Local Business (LP)

Titus Andronicus

Currently Unavailable

$19.98

SHIPS FREE in U.S.

Amoeba Review

The catchiest song is called “Still Life With Hot Deuce On Silver Platter.” The kings of verbose, piercing punk epics are back on Local Business. They haven’t mellowed exactly, but Local Business is a more concise, less corrosive affair than 2010’s grandiose The Monitor and their blistering first album. Patrick Stickles sings more than screams here, and songs like the aforementioned and opener “Ecce Homo” supply whiskey-soaked riffs and social commentary, finding a halfway point between The Clash and Bruce Springsteen. On the surface songs like in “Upon Viewing Oregon's Landscape With The Flood Of Detritus” sound like reasonably conventional pub-punk, but they’re stuffed with details, though that song eventually gives way to shoutalong choruses of “Built to last!” and “Thrown away!” that make untangling the rest of the lyrics more fun — though such untangling isn’t necessary on the rollicking “Food Fight!,” which literally consists of those two words and a lot of “Personality Crisis”-style dude-glam vamping. Local Business certainly is Titus Andronicus’ most fun album, but it retains the cerebral core the band has always had, making for the most entertaining nerdy-guy drinking music around.